Writing instrument



March 2, 1954 N. ZEPELOVITCH 2,670,710

WRITING INSTRUMENT Filed July 12, 1949 IINVENTOR." NATHAN ZEPELOVITCHATTORNEY.

WW/dz the neck of the holder.

Patented Mar. 2, 1954 WRITING INSTRUMENT Nathan Zepelovitch, Tel Aviv,Israel, assignor to Nahum A. Bernstein, New York, N. Y.

Application July 12, 1949, Serial No. 104,314

The invention'relates to writing instruments Y of the fountain pen type,i. e. to instruments having an ink reservoir. More particularly theinvention relates to such instruments where the ink reservoir isconstituted by the rigid barrel.- of the instrument.

The"swe'atingf of such instruments is a frequent occurrence and .hasalways been considered a nuisance. This wetting of the penholder,particularly at the spot where it is usually held by the fingers of thewriting hand, is due to the fact that after writing, traces of inkremain in the nib and feed duct, or for that matter in the writing tipif there is no nib proper, and owing to changes of temperature (e. g.the difference between outside temperature and the body temperatureinside the pocket), these traces of liquid evaporate, later on condenseand c'ollect'on the inside of the cap and seep downwards onto occurrencemay be changes of outside pressure to which the instrument is exposed,e. g. as in the case of air travels.

It is the object of this invention to create a writing instrument of thetype having an'ink.

reservoir, wherein the above described drawback is eliminated. To thisend the instruments are provided with means which cause the writing tipand feed duct to be subjected to a suction from the ink reservoir everytime the writing is interrupted and the instrument is reversed from thewriting position into a position with its writing tip pointing upwards.

In order that the invention should be more readily understood, I shalldescribe it now with reference to the accompanying drawings showing byway of example a writing instrument of the type indicated above andhaving a narrow tube as writing tip. Although my invention is mostadvantageously applied to this type of instrument, I wish it to beunderstood that the invention is not limited thereto and that it can beapplied to any type of fountain pen having a rigid ink reservoir andwherein the accommo dation of the new means is not obstructed by partsof the filling mechanism, such-as pistons and the like.

Fig. 1 is a schematic view, partially in section, of a writinginstrument of the kind referred to;

Fig. 2 is a vertical section, enlarged in scale, of the upper portion ofthe writing instrument illustrated in Fig. 1;

Fig. 2a shows the construction illustrated in Fig. 2 but reversed inposition, i. e. disposed upside down; and

Another cause for this 4 Claims. (Cl.120-46) Fig. 3 is an enlargedvertical sectional view of an alternative construction.

Referring now to Figs. 1 and 2: There is provided a writing instrumenthav- I ing a barrel l constitutin the ink reservoir.

Disposed within the barrel and securedto the end thereof opposite thewriting tip is a soft and resilient bag 2 made of air and watertightmaterial. To the side of the bag disposed towards the writing tip, aweighted body 3, e. g. a small metal pellet, is fixedly attached. Thebag 2 is in communication with the atmosphere through a small hole 4extending through the wall of the ink reservoir. 7 1 7,

While in writing position, due to the weight of pellet 3, the bag 2 isexpanded to its full volume. As soon as the writing is stopped and theinstrument is. reversed, it assumes the position shownin Fig. 2a, anddue to the weight of pellet -3 the bag 2 collapses and folds up, withthe consequence that suction is created within barrel I, sufficient to,suck moisture from the writing tip and ink feed duct back into thebarrel.

, Contrarily, when writing is resumed, the b g-2 presses forward, andassumes a configuration as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and a small quantityof ink is immediately forced to the writingtipand writing can becommenced at once. Thus, whenever the bag expands, air enters throughhole 4 and at its collapse, air is expelled through the hole, notrestricting the movement of pellet 3 which is conditioned solely by itsown weight.

The bag should be soft and yielding to a very slight weight, so that thepellet need not be of great size. I have found a latex ba gives the bestresults, the pellet being of lentil size.

According to Fig. 3, a membrane 5 is cemented to the inner wall ofbarrel 8 across its width and some distance from its rear end. Thecentre of this membrane or diaphragm is weighted by a metal pellet 6. Inthis case there is no communication between the space 1 divided off fromthe barrel by the diaphragm, and the outside. Thus within space I aquantity of air is enclosed. When the instrument is brought into writingposition the diaphragm will bulge downward, i. e. towards the tip, andwith the tip pointing upwards the bulge will be downward, but in thiscase towards the rear end of the instrument. These movements are ofcourse of smaller magnitude and effect than those of the bag mentionedin the description relating to the embodiment shown in Figs. 1, 2 and2a.

The determination of whether one or the other of these constructionswill actually be chosen for 3 an individual type of writing instrumentwill depend upon the width of the ink outlet, the density of the ink andsimilar considerations.

With the diaphragm construction illustrated in Fig. 3, the air, due toits resistance against expansion and compression and due to its being:enclosed in space 1, serves as a brake for the movement of the membrane,thus slowing down this movement.

I claim:

1. In a writing instrument, a barrel member adapted to contain a writingfluid, a writing tip mounted on one end of said barrel member and influid communication with the interior thereof, easily deformablematerial forming a compartment positioned within said barrel member atthe end thereof opposite said writing tip, and a small weighted memberof a mass suiiicient to deform said deformable material upongravitational displacement thereof disposed entirely within said barrelmember and secured to said compartment on the portion thereof nearestsaid writing tip for varying the pressure in said barrel in response tothe relative elevation of said writing tip with 1 respect to said barrelmember under the influence of gravitational displacement of saidweighted member deforming said compartment.

2. In a writing instrument, a barrel member adapted to contain a writingfluid, a writing tip mounted on one end of said barrel member and influid communication with the interior thereof, easily deformablematerial forming a compartment positioned within said barrel member atthe end thereof opposite said writing tip, passage means connecting theinterior of said compart- 'ment with the atmosphere externally of saidest said writing tip, whereby the pressure in said barrel is varied inresponse to the relative elevation of said writing tip with respect tosaid weighted member through the gravitational displacement of saidweighted member deforming said compartment.

3. In a writing instrument, a barrel having an ink reservoirtherewithin, a writing tip in fluid communication therewith, and meansfor varying the pressure in said ink reservoir in response to therelative elevation of said writing tip with respect to said inkreservoir, including a deformable diaphragm forming the boundary of saidink reservoir positioned opposite to said writing tip and a smallweighted member of a mass sufficient to deform said deformable diaphragmupon gravitational displacement thereof disposed entirely within saidbarrel and secured to said deformable diaphragm for deforming the samein response to the gravitational displacement of said weighted member.

4. In a writing instrument, a barrel having an ink reservoirtherewithin, a writing tip in fluid communication therewith, and meansfor varying the pressure in said ink reservoir in response to therelative elevation of said writing tip with respect to said inkreservoir, including deformable material positioned entirely within saidbarrel and forming with the adjacent portions of said barrel adeformable compartment in communication with the atmosphere externallyof said ink reservoir, and a small weighted member of a mass sufficientto deform said deformable material upon gravitational displacementthereof disposed entirely within said barrel and secured to saiddeformable material for deforming the same in response to thegravitational displacement of said weighted member.

NATHAN ZEPELOVITCH.-

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 348,023 Fuller Mar. '26, 1907 2,031,343 Teift "a. Feb. 18,1936 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 466,012 Great Britain May 20,1937 503,994 Great Britain Apr. 18, 1939

